“Yelena, you've driven me crazy. You've caused me considerable trouble and I've contemplated ending your life twice since I've known you." Valek's warm breath in my ear sent a shiver down my spine.
"But you’ve slipped under my skin, invaded my blood and seized my heart.”
“That sounds more like a poison than a person,” was all I could say. His confession had both shocked and thrilled me.
“Exactly,” Valek replied. “You have poisoned me.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Everyone makes choices in life. Some bad, some good. It's called living, and if you want to bow out, then go right ahead. But don't do it halfway. Don't linger in whiner's limbo.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Trusting is hard. Knowing who to trust, even harder.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Sieges weathered, fight together, friends forever.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“What have I earned from you, Valek? Loyalty? Respect? Trust?"
"You have my attention. But give me what I want, and you can have everything.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“But you've slipped under my skin, invaded my blood and seized my heart.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Poisoned, pursued and living with a psychopath. Not what I would consider the good life. Death has its perks.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“In fact, he's never taken an interest in a woman before. I was beginning to to suspect he might prefer one of his male sneaks, but now..." She paused dramatically. "Now, we have the lovely, intelligent Yelena to get Valek's cold heart pumping."
"You really should get out of your sewing room more. You need fresh air and a dose of reality," I said knowing better than to believe a word Dilana said, but unable to control the silly little grin on my face.
Her sweet, melodious laughter followed me into the hallway.
"You know I'm right, " she called.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Out of nowhere, Valek appeared before me, yelling in my ear, shaking my shoulders. Stupidly, belatedly, I realized he was the drunk. Who else but Valek could win a fight against four large men when armed only with a beer mug?”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“An execution order hasn’t kept us apart before. There are ways to get around it. We will be together.”
“Is that an order?”
“No, a promise.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Let's go. We're supposed to rendezvous with the Captain at the lake. Oh, and try to keep the noise down. You sound like a panicked moose crashing through the woods," the smarter man chided.
"Oh yeah. Like you could hear me over your specially trained 'woodland-animal footsteps,'" Rough Voice countered. "It was like listening to two deer humping each other.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“I didn't expect a knife, though. Is it the one missing from the kitchen?"
"Did Rand report it?" I felt betrayed. Why hadn't he just asked for it back?
"No. It just makes sense to keep track of large kitchen knives, so when one goes missing you're not surprised when someone attacks you with it.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“To Yelena, our newest food taster. May you last longer than your predecessor.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“The uniform enhanced his athletic body, and my thoughts drifted to how magnificent he would look with his uniform puddled around his feet.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“One, and two, and three, four, five. Keep fighting like this and you will die," Janco sang.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Yelena, you've driven me crazy. You've caused me considerable trouble and I've contemplated ending your life twice since I've known you...but you slipped under my skin, invaded my blood and seized my heart.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“I want you to have this.” He extended his hand. On his palm sat the beautiful butterfly he had carved. Silver spots on the wings glinted in the sunlight, and a silver chain hung from a small hole drilled into its body.
Valek looped the necklace around my neck. “When I carved this statue, I was thinking about you. Delicate in appearance, but with a strength unnoticed at first glance.” His eyes met mine.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“I didn’t want or expect this. But I couldn’t resist you.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“I understood that Valek’s loyalty to the Commander was without question. His blue eyes held a fierce determination and I knew in my soul that Valek would take his own life after he had taken mine.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“You put on such a brave front. But I know if I took another step toward you, you'd wet your pants.'
'With your blood.' I brandished my knife. But I couldn't keep a straight face; the boast sounded ridiculous even to my own ears. I snickered. She laughed. The release of tension made me giddy, and soon I was laughing and crying.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Yelena.” I halted in the doorway, looking back over my shoulder.
“You once said I wasn’t ready to believe your reason for killing Reyad. I’ll believe you now.”
“But I’m not ready to tell you,” I said and left the room.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“I hate a mystery. I would have let the identity of the Commander’s successor remain a secret, as I have for fifteen years, but tonight’s opportunity was too tempting. With eight drunken Generals sleeping it off, I could have danced on their beds without waking them."
- Valek”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“It's a dirty way to fight, but I'm late for lunch."
- Valek to Yelena”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Back so soon?" he asked. "Too bad. I was just about to organize a search for your dead body. What happened when you knocked on the southerner magician's door to sacrifice yourself? Did they kick you out, thinking you too half-witted to waste their time on?”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Well, Valek, any new promotions?” the Commander asked
“No. But Maren shows promise. Unfortunately she doesn’t want to be in my corps or even be my second.She just wants to beat me.” Valek grinned, delighted by the challenge.
“And can she?” the Commander inquired. His eyebrows rose.
“With time and the proper training. She’s deadly with her bow; it’s just her tactics that need work.”
“Then what do we do with her?”
“Promote her to General and retire some of those old wind-bags. We could use some fresh blood in the upper ranks.”
“Valek, you never had a good grasp of military structure.”
“Then promote her to First Lieutenant today, Captain tomorrow, Major the next day, Colonel the day after, and General the day after that.”
“I’ll take it under advisement.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“I peered deeper and found my soul. A little tattered and with some holes, but there all the same. It had always been there, I realized with shock.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“Valek leaned back in his chair and said to me, “I don’t think I would have made it past the audition,Yelena. I probably would have set my hair on fire by this point.”
“What’s a singed head for the sake of art?” I teased. He laughed.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“I balled my hands into tight fists to keep them from wrapping around Mr. I-Know-Everything's superior neck.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“His movements were so graceful that I wondered if he had been a dancer, but his words betrayed to me that his fluid gestures were those of a trained killer.”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Poison Study
“What the hell were you doing at the Hurrah? You won't find a date there, none of them are into chicks.”
― Kylie Chan, quote from White Tiger
“Dear Net-Mail User [ EweR-635-78-2267-3 aSp]: Your mailbox has just been rifled by EmilyPost, an autonomous courtesy-worm chain program released in October 2036 by an anonymous group of net subscribers in western Alaska. [ ref: sequestered confession 592864-2376298.98634, deposited with Bank Leumi 10/23/36:20:34:21. Expiration-disclosure 10 years.] Under the civil disobedience sections of the Charter of Rio, we accept in advance the fines and penalties that will come due when our confession is released in 2046. However we feel that’s a small price to pay for the message brought to you by EmilyPost. In brief, dear friend, you are not a very polite person. EmilyPost’s syntax analysis subroutines show that a very high fraction of your Net exchanges are heated, vituperative, even obscene. Of course you enjoy free speech. But EmilyPost has been designed by people who are concerned about the recent trend toward excessive nastiness in some parts of the Net. EmilyPost homes in on folks like you and begins by asking them to please consider the advantages of politeness. For one thing, your credibility ratings would rise. (EmilyPost has checked your favorite bulletin boards, and finds your ratings aren’t high at all. Nobody is listening to you, sir!) Moreover, consider that courtesy can foster calm reason, turning shrill antagonism into useful debate and even consensus. We suggest introducing an automatic delay to your mail system. Communications are so fast these days, people seldom stop and think. Some Net users act like mental patients who shout out anything that comes to mind, rather than as functioning citizens with the human gift of tact. If you wish, you may use one of the public-domain delay programs included in this version of EmilyPost, free of charge. Of course, should you insist on continuing as before, disseminating nastiness in all directions, we have equipped EmilyPost with other options you’ll soon find out about…”
― David Brin, quote from Earth
“That's the claim. The Arl and the Prince, both killed at West Hill." she glanced at Maric, crooking one corner of her mouth in grim amusement. "Apparently your body was not distinguishable from those of regular Fereldan men and thus couldn't be found, according to the usurper."
"Well that's just rude.”
― David Gaider, quote from The Stolen Throne
“Life is subjective as far as memories are concerned. I mean, what pieces of your own life do you really remember? Some good times, some bad times definitely, but mostly you remember those times that really stand out, those times that define who you are as an individual. Now's the time my life flashes before me—flickering recollections, vacations, holidays, friendships, the moments that made a difference. Mostly I remember that weekend with Kaylee.”
― Megan Bostic, quote from Never Eighteen
“Go ahead, look at the message. You know you want to.”
“No, it doesn’t matter.”
“Then why do you keep staring at it like it’s the last piece of food on earth?”
― Victoria Michaels, quote from Trust in Advertising
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.